III. 



BEARS AND WOLVES. 



" Slender. Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i' the town ? 



"Anne. I think there are, sir ; I heard them talked of. 



" Slender. I love the sport well ; but I shall as soon quarrel at it, as 

 any man in England. — You are afraid, if you see the bear loose, are 

 you not ? 



''^ Anne. Ay, indeed, sir. 



" Slender. That's meat and drink to me now : I have seen Sackerson 

 loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain : but, I warrant you, 

 the women have so cried and shrieked at it, that it passed : but women, 

 indeed, cannot abide 'em ; they are very ill-favoured rough things." 



In Nature, bears and wolves have very little indeed in 

 common. They are opposed in appearance, habits of life, 

 and character ; yet it would be difficult in all Poetry to 

 find two wild animals more intimately associated. The 

 shambling, fruit-eating, retiring, straightforward, and mild- 

 mannered bear ^ differs most conspicuously from the agile, 

 flesh-preferring, aggressive, crafty, and ferocious wolf. Never- 

 %°less in poetry they are as punctually bracketed together 



I" "'<; and linnets, 

 being fiU 



leopard, x b^ars. 



sidered so pit ..... 



r.,1 ir»n(T i-in^f^c^^st, has lost castc m public estmiation, first 



three weeks ahead,^"0"^'"'°"^ familiarity which its dancing 

 the earth and obsei'^cak of the grizzly bear, and I do not therefore 

 hell, are quite within i. 



